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Fragmented Customer View Challenges Retail Sector’s
Ability to Achieve Customer Centricity, UK Survey Reveals
Investment in customer service is critical to retail success, but organizations lack 360-degree view of the customer, a survey commissioned by BEA reveals
Core News Facts
- 96 percent of retailers believe investment in customer service is critical to future business success, a UK survey commissioned by BEA reveals.
- Over half (52 percent) are unable to provide a unified, 360-degree view of their customers.
- 33 percent believe that the alignment of IT, business processes, and people to deliver innovative customer services will offer the greatest advantage in the next 12 months.
LONDON— Feb 20, 2006—BEA Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS) a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software, today revealed that a fragmented customer view is challenging the UK retail sector’s ability to achieve customer centricity. Ninety-six percent of the respondents to a survey commissioned by BEA believe that investment in customer service is critical to retail success; however 52 percent of retailers are unable to create the 360-degree customer view needed to support unique customer preferences and design loyalty programs, customer support processes, merchandise selection, and the in-store experience around those preferences.
The survey—commissioned by BEA—was conducted at The Retail Business event in London, which was attended by more than 4,800 delegates during February 2008.
The survey highlights further discrepancies between what retailers would like to do to improve customer service and their capability to execute on this strategy. One third of respondents believe that the alignment of IT, business processes, and people to deliver innovative customer services will offer the greatest advantage in the next 12 months. Yet 54 percent of organizations are unable to quickly implement or change business processes—human and system centric—to accommodate changing customer requirements. Moreover, 29 percent cite disconnected customer data sources as an obstacle when it comes to adopting a customer-centric approach to retailing. Other obstacles cited include cost and changing business processes to accommodate business needs.
“Retail organizations cannot afford to ignore a 360-degree customer view when it comes to IT investment. Customers cross channels repeatedly during the purchase process, which means retailers need to provide the same information and service at every touchpoint. To do so, employees and applications need to be able to access relevant information about customers, and products,—regardless of where they are in the business,” Ian Broughton, Commercial Marketing Director, BEA Systems.
Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is the answer to this conundrum. Based on loosely connected, interoperable software services or functions that are easily shared within and between enterprises, SOA allows retailers to leverage existing IT investments to obtain a single, consistent view of information and intelligence about customers, products, and business processes. It also makes IT resources sharable. There are benefits at every level of the organization. Customer satisfaction and loyalty are enhanced, since customers feel recognized and well-served, no matter how or where they make contact; organizations experience a faster time to market with new capabilities; the cost of operations is reduced through higher supply-chain efficiency and lower inventories; and the rapid reconfiguration of IT systems results in increased agility and the flexibility to adapt to change.
“Retailers need to look hard at whether they can introduce innovative customer-centric strategies, based on existing point to point integration that fails to deliver a 360 degree view of the customer across touch points,” said Ian Broughton, Commercial Marketing Director, BEA Systems. “BEA believes that retail organizations can transform their IT infrastructures using business process management and loosely connected software services. By allowing innovative business processes to consume these shared services retailers can free themselves of siloed data and applications, then deliver truly differentiating and customer centric offerings.”
For more information on how to get started, download the free white paper entitled SOA: The Architecture of Choice for Demand-Driven Retail.
About BEA Systems, Inc.
BEA Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: BEAS) is a world leader in enterprise infrastructure software. Information about how BEA helps customers build a Liquid Enterprise™ that transforms their business can be found at bea.com.
Contact Information:
David Milsom
GolinHarris for BEA
020 7067 0632
dmilsom@golinharris.com
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